Electronics and Embedded Programming V3 - Developers

[QUOTE=VistaPOWA;36513207]or you could just buy some UV LEDs and light them up?[/QUOTE] They don't give you an even lighting, and don't have quite as much power as those erasers.

[QUOTE=DrLuke;36513281]They don't give you an even lighting, and don't have quite as much power as those erasers.[/QUOTE] And LEDs are a bit higher up in the UV spectrum than UV bulbs are. Just buy one of "nail dryer" UV bulbs for 5 bux on ebay. For example: [url]http://www.ebay.nl/itm/The-Edge-Uv-Spare-Bulb-For-36W-2003039-/280881886899?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Nails_Manicure_Pedicure_CA&hash=item4165dd76b3[/url]

[QUOTE=ddrl46;36514681]And LEDs are a bit higher up in the UV spectrum than UV bulbs are. Just buy one of "nail dryer" UV bulbs for 5 bux on ebay. For example: [url]http://www.ebay.nl/itm/The-Edge-Uv-Spare-Bulb-For-36W-2003039-/280881886899?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Nails_Manicure_Pedicure_CA&hash=item4165dd76b3[/url][/QUOTE] You need a ballast for those.

Yeah but considering you also need a PSU for it you might aswell just buy a proper eraser.

[QUOTE=Chryseus;36515006]You need a ballast for those.[/QUOTE] Wind one yourself, you have a beard.

Finished my pump project! My portable floor AC unit has a condensation water tank since it has a de-humidifying effect and needs to get rid of the condensation on the radiators. It's a 5-ish liter tank that needs to be emptied about once a day, which is just too hard for me. Here's the circuitry assembled in project box, it's a super complicated design of a monostable 555 timer that powers a relay when triggered by the water level (two green leads going off to the right) for about 10 seconds. [t]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59112523/upload/2012-06-30%2009.52.14.jpg[/t] There wasn't enough space on the board for a voltage regulator so I bodged one in afterwards. Not pretty but it works. [t]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59112523/upload/2012-06-30%2009.52.32.jpg[/t] [t]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59112523/upload/2012-06-30%2009.52.52.jpg[/t] Here's the pump I'm using. [t]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59112523/upload/2012-06-30%2009.53.06.jpg[/t] I forgot to take pics of it installed and I can't be bothered to now but I tested it and it works.

Took apart two old and rather worn out DVD-ROM drives, not that much of interest inside. Laser diode (got two of these) [img]http://electrical-workbench.co.uk/images/fp/laser.png[/img] Interesting looking optical sensor [img]http://electrical-workbench.co.uk/images/fp/opto.png[/img] Tiny solenoid on the laser head [img]http://electrical-workbench.co.uk/images/fp/coils.png[/img] Mystery IC [img]http://electrical-workbench.co.uk/images/fp/unknown.png[/img] Cleaning out all my old junk, going to redecorate my room / workshop soon. :v:

So I spent the last week creating a better solution to replacing a special wiring harness for an old computer. The previous idea had me working with the coax lines from several VGA monitor cables. It wasn't pretty and it had a lot of fabrication involved. [thumb]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/100_2902.jpg[/thumb] The original cable itself consisted of four coax lines. Seemed like normal stuff. I realized that SATA was pretty much the same although instead of eight lines (signal and their respective grounds) I only had seven but I assumed that this wouldn't be an issue because the shields would be linked at either end plus in the cables themselves. [thumb]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/100_2903.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/100_2904.jpg[/thumb] The new SATA cable solution looked to be a lot better and used a crap ton less parts. The whole thing, bulkheads and all, took less than an hour to throw together. [thumb]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/100_2905.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/100_2901.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/100_2917.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/100_2920.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/100_2921.jpg[/thumb] Awesome. Everything looks perfect. Now let me just read up on the schematics so I can figure out the pino-- [IMG]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/quadwat.jpg[/IMG] [b]WHAT?![/b] They're actually fucking high/low signal lines. They aren't grounds at all and worse, [b]it means the whole fucking weeks worth of effort was for nothing.[/b] Why DEC. Why?? Why for fucks sake would you use coaxial cable when you didn't actually need it?? You just....You son of a bitch.

needed lots of outputs and was too cheap to buy an expensive TI dev board with shit load of outputs (100+) or a NI-DAQ/NI-USB. So i decided to make my own decoder (14:112): [IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/asdf211.png[/IMG]

Which CAD did you use?

[QUOTE=DrLuke;36574336]Which CAD did you use?[/QUOTE] Altium Designer. [editline]1st July 2012[/editline] I used to use Orcad but Altium 10 is just so much better. Diptrace is good too.

[t]http://i.imgur.com/0mGsf.jpg[/t] I'm confused, beta (IC/IE) should not be going negative..

My bench (and floor) has evolved! [url=http://ddrl46.co.uk/fp/overview.JPG][IMG]http://ddrl46.co.uk/fp/overview_thumb.jpg[/IMG][/url] [url=http://ddrl46.co.uk/fp/side.JPG][IMG]http://ddrl46.co.uk/fp/side_thumb.jpg[/IMG][/url] Still have to put some racks up for my analog gear (toobz).

How can I tell if an IR LED is blown or not? My connections are all right, and I have even tested them with a normal LED. [img]http://puu.sh/FnNd[/img] [editline]2nd July 2012[/editline] And yes I am aware you cannot see IR light with the naked eye.

[QUOTE=toaster468;36595824]How can I tell if an IR LED is blown or not? My connections are all right, and I have even tested them with a normal LED. [img]http://puu.sh/FnNd[/img] [editline]2nd July 2012[/editline] And yes I am aware you cannot see IR light with the naked eye.[/QUOTE] Look at the LED through a digital camera, or just put an LED in series with the IR LED

[QUOTE=Trumple;36595982]Look at the LED through a digital camera, or just put an LED in series with the IR LED[/QUOTE] I have, but I didn't see it turn on. I mean, I have plugged one of my LEDs into 5v without resisting it fine before just to mess around, so I figured it wouldn't hurt it.

Easy as shit on the hardware/software side of things but finally a good use for blinking lights controlled by an Arduino! Video: [url]http://minus.com/lbgt58bRx5sTgE[/url] (Its a Tardis with a light to simulate fading in and out) [editline]2nd July 2012[/editline] The Tardis is papercraft, maybe I will upload a better video when it's done.

[QUOTE=toaster468;36596009]I have, but I didn't see it turn on. I mean, I have plugged one of my LEDs into 5v without resisting it fine before just to mess around, so I figured it wouldn't hurt it.[/QUOTE] The Vdrop on IR LEDs is usually ~1.5V. (5V - 1.5V)/(1 ohm) = 4.5A Most LEDs run at max of 20-30mA, so you may have burned it out

[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;36600258]The Vdrop on IR LEDs is usually ~1.5V. (5V - 1.5V)/(1 ohm) = 4.5A Most LEDs run at max of 20-30mA, so you may have burned it out[/QUOTE] The way that he's talking about it, pretty sure whatever 5v source he used wasn't capable of delivering 4.5A. Prolly just used a microcontroller GPIO, right toaster468? [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=ryan1271;36597350]Easy as shit on the hardware/software side of things but finally a good use for blinking lights controlled by an Arduino! Video: [url]http://minus.com/lbgt58bRx5sTgE[/url] (Its a Tardis with a light to simulate fading in and out) [editline]2nd July 2012[/editline] The Tardis is papercraft, maybe I will upload a better video when it's done.[/QUOTE] Uh, doesn't arduino have a fading blink example?

[QUOTE=aydin690;36602254]The way that he's talking about it, pretty sure whatever 5v source he used wasn't capable of delivering 4.5A. Prolly just used a microcontroller GPIO, right toaster468? [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] Uh, doesn't arduino have a fading blink example?[/QUOTE] I'm not sure how much the 5v out gives on the Arduino. And yes it has a blinking example.

Not sure if this is relevant here, but here goes nothing: I've got myself a Raspberry Pi and fiddled around a bit with it. Eventually I really felt like it could be awesome with a touch screen and I actually found an old touch screen that I had lying around. It's a Medion x54000 touch screen which appears to work just fine on my windows machine. However, plugging it into the raspberry with the Debian image on it didn't work as easily. I expect it to be some driver issue or whatever, but I've never ever attempted something such as this before. Is it possible for me to look into writing my own driver for Debian so that it can atleast support using the touch screen as a mouse? [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] People are rating agree/disagree, which is it? :( I've never attempted writing drivers before so I'm simply interested in knowing whether or not this is possible AT ALL? The screen uses a USB interface for the touch screen capability but that doesn't work on the raspberry as it does on my windows pc. It displays the image just fine though, so that's why I'm asking if it's a driver issue and if it's possible to do something about it myself?

[QUOTE=Capsup;36606551]Not sure if this is relevant here, but here goes nothing: I've got myself a Raspberry Pi and fiddled around a bit with it. Eventually I really felt like it could be awesome with a touch screen and I actually found an old touch screen that I had lying around. It's a Medion x54000 touch screen which appears to work just fine on my windows machine. However, plugging it into the raspberry with the Debian image on it didn't work as easily. I expect it to be some driver issue or whatever, but I've never ever attempted something such as this before. Is it possible for me to look into writing my own driver for Debian so that it can atleast support using the touch screen as a mouse? [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] People are rating agree/disagree, which is it? :( I've never attempted writing drivers before so I'm simply interested in knowing whether or not this is possible AT ALL? The screen uses a USB interface for the touch screen capability but that doesn't work on the raspberry as it does on my windows pc. It displays the image just fine though, so that's why I'm asking if it's a driver issue and if it's possible to do something about it myself?[/QUOTE] Its definitely possible to write some rudimentary driver to use the touch screen as a mouse. I've managed to scrounge you a manual: [URL="http://download1.medion.com/downloads/anleitungen/bda20165uk.pdf"]http://download1.medion.com/downloads/anleitungen/bda20165uk.pdf[/URL] But I doubt that will get you far. You could try googling "Medion x54000 USB protocol" and see if there are any project sites on the subject. Another approach is to reverse engineer. Get a terminal program(Such as HyperTerminal) and setup your Pi to read all input data from the touch screen. And datalog it with all the actions you've done. For example, if the USB interface from the screen outputed: 0x005E 0x01F4 0x0200 When you touched somewhere at roughly 512 x 512 on the screen you could interpret the string of data as follows: 0x005E - Possibly an indicator word noting that a touch has been detected 0x01F4 - Possibly the X location(Decimal for 500) 0x0200 - Possibly the Y Location(Decimal for 512) These are just examples, but you could do that kind of reverse engineering to figure out the protocol. Then write a driver to interpret the protocol.

Might be possible it's some off-the-shelf touch screen driver chip inside? I'd start by looking what the underlying hardware actually is and go from there with the datasheets (if you can obtain them) in hand. You might even get lucky and a sample driver may exist from the chip manufacturer. Writing a driver isn't particularly difficult if you have a programming background.

[QUOTE=Tezzanator92;36607285]Might be possible it's some off-the-shelf touch screen driver chip inside? I'd start by looking what the underlying hardware actually is and go from there with the datasheets (if you can obtain them) in hand. You might even get lucky and a sample driver may exist from the chip manufacturer. Writing a driver isn't particularly difficult if you have a programming background.[/QUOTE] I come from a background of c++ programming and a little assembly. I haven't delved much with C specifically, but it is definitely not strange grounds to me. That's why I thought it would be a fun project to start up on, especially now that I have just begun my summer vacation. I am completely new to the whole driver side of things though, especially on linux. I've worked mostly with the Windows API but I'm definitely up for the challenge. The touchscreen controller is a Quanta Computer, Dual, USB according to [url=http://touch-base.com/touch_device_list.asp]this[/url] list, whatever that might mean. I'm going to try and look into what Lonewolf suggested and start out with that. Thanks for the help so far!

[QUOTE=aydin690;36602254] Uh, doesn't arduino have a fading blink example?[/QUOTE] It has a linear fade from 0 to 255 example. This is a sinusoidal fade from ~50 to 255. That wasn't the point though, I just thought someone might appreciate the Tardis :)

[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;36607068] But I doubt that will get you far. You could try googling "Medion x54000 USB protocol" and see if there are any project sites on the subject. [/QUOTE] I really need help with this part. After having done alot of research about this yesterday, I've been unable to figure out how to datalog properly with the raspberry. All I've found so far is actual boards that you buy which comes with a program that you can use to datalog USB data. I haven't been able to find anything that simply lets me see what data comes from the touch screen. I did however find alot of information about writing drivers for Debian and what not, so I just need help getting started with reverse-engineering the touch screen.

[QUOTE=Capsup;36621349]I really need help with this part. After having done alot of research about this yesterday, I've been unable to figure out how to datalog properly with the raspberry. All I've found so far is actual boards that you buy which comes with a program that you can use to datalog USB data. I haven't been able to find anything that simply lets me see what data comes from the touch screen. I did however find alot of information about writing drivers for Debian and what not, so I just need help getting started with reverse-engineering the touch screen.[/QUOTE] Well, for the time being you could just use a terminal program for linux. I'm not very knowledgeable on Raspberry Pi's(Sorry If I misled you), so you might want to go over to the Pi forums for that kinda question. I've found this article(If you are indeed running linux on your Pi), hopefully it can come to some use: [URL="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7582"]http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7582[/URL]

[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;36621971]Well, for the time being you could just use a terminal program for linux. I'm not very knowledgeable on Raspberry Pi's(Sorry If I misled you), so you might want to go over to the Pi forums for that kinda question. I've found this article(If you are indeed running linux on your Pi), hopefully it can come to some use: [URL]http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7582[/URL][/QUOTE] Ah, yeah. I found that article too and had already read it over. I just felt like it was an extreme measure to start fiddling with the kernel. It may be a normal way to do things on Linux, but it felt way too extreme to me. I found [URL="http://learn.adafruit.com/hacking-the-kinect/overview"]this[/URL] article which is exactly what I wanted to do and have been reading that, only problem is that the author uses one of those boards that I mentioned earlier. And I just can't believe there's no easy way to get the R-Pi to datalog for me. The R-Pi isn't any different from other Linux devices I believe? I use Debian Sqeeze on it which is basically just Debian but with all the extras cut out. I'm a complete newbie at Linux developement, so that's why I'm this bad at it. :v:

Anybody know much about programming for the Motorola 56000 DSP's?

[QUOTE=MIPS;36625505]Anybody know much about programming for the Motorola 56000 DSP's?[/QUOTE] The same core is used in the Freescale Semiconductor DSP56K series so I suspect the programming is very similar if not the same. [url]http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/homepage.jsp?code=563XXGPDSP[/url]